Photos from Red Bull Air Race

Just a quick post with a number of photos (and commentary) from the recent final leg of the Red Bull Air Race here in Perth last Sunday.

Keep reading for more photos.

It was very crowded in South Perth. Apparantly around 300,000 people turned up to watch the show (which is around the same about that turn up for the annual SkyWorks fireworks show). There were big video screens showing “the story so far” and instant replays:

It was sometimes difficult to see over the throngs of people:

but the planes still felt very close:

Food was expensive and the lines were insane. Chicken Treat didn’t seem entirely upfront about their prices. You could barely make out how much everything costs until you were very close to the shop (and had already invested in a long wait in line):

A lot of people left very quickly after the Air Race was over. Around 45 minutes after the race, the Perth side of the river was very clear:

There was still a lot to see, including aerial acrobatics demonstrations:

and fighter jets. There was a quartet flying in formation:

soon followed by an individual fighter jet that seemed to be painted with the Australian flag. It buzzed past both the north and south shores and ended by flying straight up into the sky, releasing flares as it went:

Although South Perth was the recommended location for viewing the Air Race, I think that the north shore would have been better. It didn’t seems as crowded (granted I was there after the main race):

and you could see the planes taking off and landing at Langley park:

Riverside Drive and Terrace Road (west-bound?) were closed to cars for most of the day. It made it fairly easy to get around on a bike:

Judging from the lines for food, the overflowing rubbish bins, and the small number of toilets and police (compared to Skyworks) I don’t think that they were expecting the high level of interest and attendance the event received.

So that’s it. Please let me know if you went and what you thought of the event. Phil seemed fairly impressed!